For a moment, the world stood still. Our more and more accelerated life was forced to slow down abruptly. From one day to the other business was lost, or at least put on hold, new priorities came into the focus, directions changed. For some people work (almost) disappeared over night for others it doubled or tripled.

Companies and teams needed to reorganize themselves. Employees whose work was put on hold, quickly learned new skills to help out colleagues that were overwhelmed with rising demands. I have heard many stories of solidarity, teamwork, and commitment during these tough times of crisis. And HR teams played a major role in this.

The lock down and working from home accelerated the adoption of more technology in our daily routine. There was this joke going on in social media: Who led the digital transformation of your company? A) CEO, B) CTO, C) Innovation Team, D) Covid-19? And although technology has taken the forefront, paradoxically people have become the centre of attention.

HR’s biggest asset “caring for people” has become as visible as ever. The work that HR teams have done during this crisis to provide not only physical but also emotional safety to their employees, implement support measures in any sense, and care about people’s well-being is impressive. The positive side-effect is that the role of HR has gained in relevance.

Now we are entering the post-covid era. As a client of mine said: “As bad as it sounds, you see that normality is coming back when you finally after months have a disciplinary process to solve.” Business as usual has been called into question and it is time to rethink assumptions regarding business practices, or HR practices for that matter. I see that the post-covid era provides a unique chance for HR to establish a more strategic role in the business.

The questions that HR needs to answer are not only: How do we get our people back to the office? Or, how do we guarantee continuous employee engagement? Or, how do we keep our people motivated and avoid increase in turnover? Or, what will the future of training look like?

The questions that HR needs to answer are even more profound than that: What will our role be in the company in the future and how can we use the chance of these unique times to build a more strategic position for HR?

The more profound a question is, the less easy it is to answer it. If you are interested in answering this strategic question, considering your needs and the ones of your company, join us at our event PEOPLE & BUSINESS EXPERIENCE™.